CJWW News contacted five area school divisions about a data breach involving the cloud software PowerSchool which has affected multiple districts in North America. Three out of the five – Saskatoon Public Schools, Greater Saskatoon CatholicSchools and Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division in Prince Albert, responded that they don’t use the PowerSchool Student Information System. Prince Albert Catholic School Division hadn’t responded yet as of the writing of this story while Prairie Spirit School Division has confirmed that they used the software from 2009 to 2022.

In a written statement, Prairie Spirit says PowerSchool has confirmed that data from their school division was part of the cybersecurity incident, and adds, “PowerSchool says the company has taken all appropriate steps to prevent further unauthorized access or misuse of the data involved.” Any updates from the software provider will be shared with Prairie Spirit staff and families, as available.

The PowerSchool website says nothing about a data breach and the only information found is on a community forum where a user asked if anyone had information and the moderator recommended working with staff in their particular school organization who would have received communication regarding the data breach.

Prairie Spirit School Division has 46 schools in communities surrounding Saskatoon